Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: Day Trip
Accommodations: n/a
Ages Represented in Group: Teen, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent, DVC members
Comments: Sue and Chris visited WDW to help celebrate the birthday of one of Chris's friends. This was a whirlwind day...I'm amazed that the group was able to cover so much ground in a single day.

Introduction:

Many of you know that I live in Florida, about a 3 hour drive from Walt Disney World. While that might sound like nothing to people who have a 3 hour flight or more to get there, to me it’s long enough that I don’t go to wdw unless I’m staying at least 3-4 nights (preferably longer). A few days ago Sheila called me. Her son Colin’s 13th birthday was Saturday, and when she asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate, he said go to Epcot. My son Chris has been Colin’s friend for a few years now, so we were invited to tag along. I’m not normally interested in a day trip to wdw, but since it’s Colin’s birthday....we really couldn’t refuse (the things we do for our friends <g>). After talking with Sheila, we decided to also try to fit in a safari ride at AK and also see Fantasmic at the Studios. We ended up visiting all 4 parks, though! I’ll break the trip report down by park, to make the reading a little easier. Also, I decided to bring my pedometer. It records miles walked, calories burned, and steps taken. I thought it would be interesting to see just how far we really do walk in a day at wdw!

The Trip Up:

Chris & I left home at 5:30 am (I got up at 4am) for Sheila/Colin’s house. Sheila was driving up, & we were on the road at 5:45. We stopped for cappuccino in Ellenton (it took a little longer than expected because I had to clean up the messes I kept making at the cappuccino machine) at 7:15. We arrived at the Epcot parking lot at 8:50. Since we have annual passes, we didn’t have to pay the parking fee. We parked in Journey 7, which is a very short walk to the park, but since the tram was there we hopped on.

Epcot:

We entered the park at 9. I was surprised to see hardly any other people there. We were hoping that this would be a fairly light day, since that silly race in Daytona that had been canceled in July was rescheduled for today. We asked Colin what he wanted to do first, and of course he said Innoventions. He & Chris spend HOURS there normally. We told the boys to go there, while the moms rode Spaceship Earth. When we got off, it was raining outside! Luckily we brought our umbrellas even though it was NOT supposed to rain at all - so we opened them up & went to Innoventions to retrieve the boys. We sent an internet postcard, and then asked Colin - what next? He wanted to do Horizons, but when we got to the Innoventions exit it was raining harder. We decided to make a run for it, but about 10 paces outside the door it just started POURING, so we retreated to the dryness of Innoventions. By this time lots of yellow ponchos were popping up everywhere!

The boys went back to their Sega while Sheila & I decided to wander around 5 minutes or so to give the rain a chance to quit. It didn’t let up, though, so we told the boys they could stay in Innoventions while the moms went to the Land (they were happy with this arrangement). Sheila & I hurried over to the Land, and rode Living with the Land (pretty much a walk-on at this point). Luckily we were seated towards the front of the 1st boat, as there was a large obnoxious group in the back of the 2nd boat. They were screaming things & acting like a bunch of drunken sailors. The CM even had to get on the microphone & tell them to sit down - while we were moving!

After the ride, we shared a toll house cookie from the bakery in the Land, and went to get the boys. Happily, the rain had stopped! By now it was just after 10, and the crowds were definitely growing, but not a big deal. We all rode Horizons next. Sheila noticed that in the scene where the man is having his hair done by the robot - his hair is being combed in the opposite of the way his hair is parted! Very strange. We smelled the orange smell - that’s one of my favorite parts. We came out at 10:40 into sunshine (finally)! It was pretty warm & very humid still from the rain, but at least we didn’t need the umbrellas. We stopped at Ice Station Cool so the boys could try some coke. On the way in they were throwing snowballs & got yelled at by their mothers. They were just a little wound up! Inside the drink area, they mixed several flavors to create new drinks. It sounded pretty disgusting, but they were happy. By now it was almost 11, so time to head to World Showcase for the Maelstrom.

We had to wait about 5 minutes for ws to open, and then headed directly to Norway. Unfortunately, the doors to Maelstrom were closed! A cm said they were having "technical difficulties" & would open as soon as possible, but no idea of exactly when. We browsed around the shops for a little while, hoping it would open, but no such luck. We regrouped & decided to walk around the world, checking back at Norway in around 30 minutes. We headed towards Mexico, and walked in that direction. We stopped in United Kingdom for Colin to look for a little soldier man (didn’t find any this trip), and then stopped in Germany to watch the outdoor train display. There was a hidden mickey in the farmer’s pumpkin field. When we got back to Norway the Maelstrom was still closed, with no information on when it might open, so we decided to skip it this trip.

We headed for the Land for lunch at the Sunshine Season’s Food Court. I used to eat here a lot, but haven’t for the past several years. It was about noon, and was busy, but not so crowded that all the tables were taken. Sheila got a chicken fajita baked potato at the Potato Stand, the boys both got chicken strips meals at the BBQ Stand, and I got chicken noodle soup & a breadstick at the Soup & Salad Stand. The food was all very good, but the line at the Soup/Salad place moved tooooooooo slowly. I was the 3rd person in line, and the last person to arrive at our table. The others were much further back in their lines, yet they beat me!

We talked about what to do next - and decided the new Buzz Lightyear attraction at MK would fit the bill! After eating, we took the monorail (sat up front with the driver) to the TTC. I noticed the line for the MK monorail was quite long, and our driver explained it was because they just pulled a train out of service. We decided to ride the ferry - which is also something we never do because we always stay on site. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. They only had a single ferry operating, and it was sitting at the MK dock! Eventually the loading area at the TTC was jam packed full of people, and the stupid boat was still sitting there at the MK. I did not relish the idea of arriving at the MK along with a huge mob of others, so we decided to walk to the Poly & pick up the monorail from there! We ended up with a fairly long wait at the Poly because they had 2 trains running on this track, and they were too close together - so there was a long gap before they both came back. I don’t understand how they let this happen, or why they don’t just FIX the problem!

Magic Kingdom:

We entered MK - it was very busy, since it was an EE day for resort guests. Colin got some popcorn as we entered, and then we headed down Main Street towards Tomorrowland. The line for Buzz Lightyear was snaked around on both sides of the entrance. I figured it would be busy, so we got in line. Much to my surprise (and horror) - when we got to the entrance of the building that was no longer the entrance to the ride!! Instead, they’ve created 2 more rooms for you to snake through before boarding the vehicles! We actually stood completely still for a while - someone in line said that sometimes people reach out & hit or touch part of the attraction with their hands and when that happens they have to shut down the ride & run out to fix or reset whatever got knocked down. If that’s true, I certainly hope they toss those people out of the park! The wait ended up being 30 minutes. The boys loved it, but I wouldn’t wait 30 minutes for it again. It was bright & colorful, and I found the spinning part to be fun, but the shooting part was not fun to me. It was too much work, and very difficult to hit anything. Maybe I’m too old for this kind of stuff! When we came out, Tomorrowland was very busy. Even the TTA had a line! We decided it was time to leave the MK & head over to AK, so it was back to Main Street. It was about 2pm, and people were already lined up waiting for the 3pm parade. We exited the park by taking a bus to Coronado Springs. We got off there, and right behind our bus was the AK bus - how convenient!

Animal Kingdom:

We arrived AK at 2:55 pm. It still looked pretty crowded, and we would end up having longer waits than I had experienced on any of my previous visits. This was Chris’ first time in AK, also! We got to Countdown to Extinction by 3, and rode it with a 20 minute wait. Chris was very nervous about this, and I don’t think he could really enjoy it because he was too tensed up. The ride broke down for a short time, and we were just in the pitch dark, with the vehicle rocking slightly & no sound playing. I hope he’ll go on it again when we’re back in 2 weeks, but I’m not sure. We were out of the ride by 3:30. We headed right over to Kilamanjaro Safari, and had a 30 minute wait there. Fortunately there was a breeze today, or this wait would have been a killer. The safari was great, and we saw just about every animal except the lions. We even saw both cheetahs, with one of them walking towards our vehicle while staring at us. Someone quipped that he was looking at "lunch" - lol. After the safari it was 5pm, and time to head to MGM for Fantasmic. They have buses running directly from AK to either MGM or Epcot. The bus we saw pulling away as we were approaching must have been for MGM, since the next one to arrive said Epcot. When the next one arrived, we got on. It stopped at Disney’s Wide World of Sports (or whatever it’s called) first, and then went to MGM.

Disney/MGM Studios:

We had dinner at Backlot. Chris & Sheila got cheeseburger/fries, Colin got another chicken strip meal, and I got the kid’s chicken nuggets. Chris likes this restaurant, but I think we may have eaten our last meal there. It wasn’t bad, but I’m just tired of it. I noticed the place on the lake has nachos, tacos, and a chicken caesar salad on their menu - so when the weather is nice we may eat there instead. After we ate, the boys ran next door to see how long the wait was at Star Tours. There was no wait, so we told them they could ride it, and Sheila & I waited for them at the exit. From there we headed directly to Fantasmic. By now my feet were getting tired, so I could not RUN to Fantasmic as Debbie (another dvc member) suggested, but we did walk briskly! It’s a looooong walk into this theater. It was just after 6, the show was scheduled for 7:30, and the only sections not filled up were the 2 on each end (4 sections total). We found room for our party somewhat off to the left of the stage, about half way back. Lots of vendors were walking around selling hot dogs, popsicles, pretzels, popcorn, soda, beer, seat cushions, & glow in the dark stuff. They also had some Streetmosphere characters entertaining from time to time. The time actually passed pretty quickly. At 7:35 the show still had not started (they had done the "in just 5 minutes" announcement over 10 minutes ago), and they announced that the park would remain open until 8:30 and a special Sorcery in the Sky Fireworks would be shown at 8:30. A few minutes later, Fantasmic finally started. The show was very good, but beware of the direction of the wind. When those mist screens are going, people in the direction of the wind are going to get soaked. We were just on the very fringe - not downwind really at all - and it was much wetter than I would have expected. Remember, we were halfway to the back of the theater, too! I told Sheila we’d have to bring goggles next time! After the show was over, it was a NIGHTMARE getting out. The theater seats 6900 people, with standing room for 3000 more (tonight the seats were all taken, but the standing people could not have been anywhere near 3000), and they all have to exit down a single narrow road. It was horrible! I asked a CM if they were going to put an exit that would go directly to the parking lot, and she said no. So, everyone had to exit out the long road to the theater, then go all the way down Sunset Boulevard, and then finally go down Hollywood Boulevard to exit the park. We sort of separated, and inched our way quickly up along the sides & it still took 30 minutes to exit! If we’d had strollers or wheelchairs it would have been awful. I think next time I’ll arrive not more than 30 minutes early, and plan to stand behind the last row of seats. Or, arrive early & sit down - but when the shows about to start go stand up back. That way when it’s over - I can high tail it out of there while the rest of the crowd & standing up & figuring out how to leave. It’s not a show I’d see every trip, though - most likely I’ll just see it when I’m traveling with people who haven’t seen it yet. We were at the bus stop (bus to Epcot) when the fireworks started, and we watched the rest of them from on the bus. We rode one of the new buses they are testing - and liked it. They look like a cattle car from the outside, but on the inside they are wider (easier for large people & those with strollers) and they have straps to hold onto if you have to stand. I think they might hold more people, too. The bus dropped us off at Epcot, and we decided to just walk to the car. We were on the road by 9pm, got our car from Sheila’s and were home by midnight.

Final Thoughts:

Would I do a day trip again? Possibly, but not any time soon, and not without a darned good reason! The last day trip was a passholder’s preview of the not-yet-opened Disney/MGM Studios in 1989. To me staying in the Disney resorts is as much a part of the wdw experience as going to the parks, and with a day trip I really miss that. Besides, 6 hours of driving is a bit much!

My next trip, my birthday trip, begins in just 11 days. It will be 9 night/10 days - which is a much more relaxing way to visit wdw than squeezing 4 parks into a single day!

The pedometer results......We walked 12.50 miles, took 26,053 steps, and it says we burned 781 calories (perhaps if we had walked the 12.5 miles without stopping).

Sue Holland

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